HP Year 6: Working Title
by Shanster
Summary: Sequel to HP Years 4 & 5. Following his disastrous fifth year, Harry desperately trains and tries to learn what Voldemort's Horcruxes are, and to figure out why he keeps losing his memory after detentions with a certain new professor...
1. Chapter 1

**HP Year 6:  
**_Chapter 1_

* * *

**Warnings**: Strong Language, Self-harm - _these may change at any time_.  
**Sequel** to _HP Year 4: Voldemort Returns_ and _HP Year 5: When Worlds Collide._

* * *

_He was vaguely aware of Sirius and Remus moving towards him, out of the corner of his eye, and then Harry recognised the look in his Uncle's eyes, the glazed-over look that showed his Uncle was unaware of much of anything. He barely had time to register this fact, that his Uncle was under the Imperious curse, before there was a sudden familiar jerk behind his navel and the train station disappeared from sight, morphing instead with a dizzying array of colours into the familiar kitchen at Number Four, Privet Drive._

.

Harry blinked, trying to stop his head from spinning, and then realised that although his uncle had moved away from him, someone else was still clutching at his arm.

"_Ginny_?" he asked incredulously. "No, Ginny, you shouldn't -"

"Harry, look out!" Ginny warned, tugging on his hand, pulling Harry away just in time to avoid Vernon's fist. His eyes certainly didn't hold that glazed-over look anymore; rather, they were filled with undeniable _fury_. Harry shoved Ginny back just in time to avoid another punch, and the two of them tumbled to the floor. Ginny's head slammed onto it with a sickening _crack_, and Harry knew there was no chance she was conscious. Panicking, Harry decided he had to keep Vernon distracted from Ginny.

"How'd you get out?" Harry asked, the first question that came to mind moving to the opposite side of the kitchen. He was pleased that his voice came out fairly even, despite the fact that inside he was almost trembling with fear. Vernon wasn't interested in Ginny, and wouldn't be, as long as Harry kept away from her.

"Some of _your lot_," Vernon spat the two words in disgust, "said if I could hold you here for a bit, they'd make sure I stayed free."

"So you're siding with wizards now, are you?" Harry asked coolly, even though inside the fear was increasing, rather than going away. All logic had gone out of his head now, and all he could think was to keep talking, to keep his Uncle distracted, so that he would forget about Ginny, and maybe be too angry to aim properly, so he wouldn't hurt Harry, and then maybe help would come, if Harry could keep away for long enough.

Although, would anybody guess that Vernon had brought him here, of all places? It did seem a bit obvious.

"Don't say words like that under my roof!" Vernon hissed dangerously, lunging at Harry. But Vernon was big and bulky and Harry easily moved away, although his hip collided painfully with the kitchen table, sending him to his knees. That gave Vernon the chance he needed, and he yanked on Harry's hair, pulling him back into a standing position. Rather than defending himself, Harry flinched back, but with the table in the way he couldn't avoid the blow that hit his face. It sent him reeling back, and Vernon happily let go so that Harry could crash to the floor. He didn't have a chance to regain his senses before his Uncle yanked him roughly up again, and Harry whimpered like a terrified child as memories flooded through his mind, reminding him of just how dangerous the situation was. Never mind that he had faced Voldemort and Death Eaters only a month before. This was entirely different.

"Who's the girl?" Vernon asked gruffly, and Harry's eyes flickered to Ginny. "I said, _who is she!"_ Vernon yelled when Harry didn't answer, smashing his fist into Harry's face again. This time Vernon left him on the floor, stepping over to Ginny instead and grabbing onto her unconscious form. Harry stood quickly, unsteadily, trying to blink the dizziness away, and almost without thinking, threw himself at Vernon. The man tumbled to the floor, dropping Ginny instantly, and Harry landed with a loud "_oomph!_" on top of him. But Ginny's wand had fallen out her sleeve when Vernon grabbed her, and finally, _finally_, Harry's mind started working again. Grabbing his own wand from his wand holster, he stuck the tip of it right in Vernon's face.

"Now, now," Vernon said hurriedly, going cross-eyed as he tried to stare at the wand tip. He obviously hadn't expected this. Either he thought Harry was still the same terrified thirteen year old he had been two years ago, or the Death Eaters should have been arriving by now to contain him. "No need to do anything… hasty."

"Anything hasty?" Harry snarled. Gone was the fear that had overpowered him as a child. He was _not_ helpless anymore. He didn't particularly care what his Uncle did to him, although he knew he should, but he _did _care if Vernon wanted to hurt Ginny. With the fear now gone, anger took over. "You… you – for years - you _abused_ me!" Harry shouted, not noticing sparks shooting out of his wand. "And then – as if it wasn't bad enough, with me – you had no right to touch her!" Harry yelled, shifting his gaze to Ginny. That was enough of a distraction for Vernon who roughly pushed Harry off him, grabbing the wooden stick out of Harry's hand before throwing it behind him as though burned.

"Taking away my wand won't stop me," Harry told him, letting out a slightly hysterical laugh. "A wand helps, but it's entirely possible to do magic without one," he hissed. Although, a wand would certainly make it easier, especially since he had to concentrate that much harder without one, and his head at the moment was thumping too much to allow him to concentrate much. Not to mention the adrenaline rush that was fading away, leaving him feeling more than a little shaky. But he wasn't going to tell Vernon that. Then he spied something lying at his feet, and allowed a brief smile.

"Incarcerous!" Harry snarled, after snatching up Ginny's wand that was on the floor beside him. He watched in satisfaction as thick ropes tied themselves around Vernon, and as the man's eyes widened in fear.

"I should hurt you," Harry said coldly, after picking up his own wand and tucking Ginny's into his pocket. "There are so many spells I could use. Wouldn't make up for the years of abuse, but…"

"You don't have it in you," Vernon scoffed, although he couldn't entirely keep the fear out of his voice.

"No, you're right," Harry agreed. "You're not worth it, in any case. And besides," he added, smiling slightly. "You hurt Ginny. She has six older, protective brothers, not to mention the temper Mrs Weasley can get! They're not going to be very happy with you."

"There are laws!" Vernon barked out desperately. "They told me. You lot aren't supposed to use your… your _freaky_ stuff against us!"

"No, we're not," Harry agreed. "Laws can be broken, though. I think you proved that often enough. It _is_ illegal to abuse children, after all." Harry paused thoughtfully. "You were tricked, anyway."

"Tricked?"

"I'm assuming, since you were to get me, that Death Eaters got you," Harry said coolly, turning around to lift Ginny up. He barely avoided falling back over with her. She wasn't heavy, but he still felt dizzy. He had to get out of here. Now. If he didn't, he wasn't sure he would be able to continue to reign in his temper, and then he maybe _would_ end up hurting Vernon. As much as the man deserved it, Harry knew he would likely still feel guilty afterwards. "Death Eaters follow Voldemort. Death Eaters _torture_ and _kill_ people like you for fun. You would've been free from jail, yeah, but you'd be free of everything else, too since they would kill you."

"You can't just leave me like this!" Vernon bellowed as Harry stepped past him. He would need to Apparate away, and he knew that since none of the protections had been taken down from Privet Drive – and there was a thought, how were the Death Eaters supposed to get him from here, anyway? – he would have to leave the house to do it.

"Sure I can," Harry said coldly before ignoring his Uncle completely and exiting the house. It took some extra concentration – he did, after all, have a _very_ sore head, and an unconscious Ginny in his arms – but he finally managed to turn on the spot and disappear with a quick _Crack!_

.

Harry reappeared a second later inside the kitchen at Number 12, Grimmauld Place – the only room in the house that now allowed Apparition and Disapparition with the heightened security – and promptly fell to his knees as dizziness overcame him. He managed not to drop Ginny, though, and instead carefully lay her on the ground in front of him.

"Kreacher?" he called out quietly.

"Harry Potter is here!" the elf cried out moments later, his eyes big and round.

"Are Sirius and Remus here?" Harry asked tiredly, and Kreacher nodded. "Good. Tell them we're down here, please?"

It took less than a minute for Sirius, Remus, and Mr and Mrs Weasley to appear in the small kitchen.

"He didn't touch her," Harry assured everyone quickly when their eyes fell on the unconscious form of Ginny. "He tried, but he didn't."

"Then why, pray tell, is she unconscious?" Mrs Weasley asked him, looking murderous.

"Er, well," Harry shifted uncomfortably. "That was kind of my fault. I pushed her away from him and we both fell, and she hit her head."

"She has bruise marks on her arm!"

"He grabbed her. I didn't give him a chance to do anymore more."

"What did he do to _you_?" Sirius asked, looking pained.

"Nothing," Harry muttered, not meeting Sirius's gaze, moving back from Ginny to stand unsteadily.

"We'll take her home," Mr Weasley quickly decided, seemingly sensing that Sirius and Remus wanted to talk to Harry, alone. "Are you sure she only hit her head?"

"I – yeah," Harry nodded. "It was me he was after, not Ginny."

"You feel better soon, dear," Mrs Weasley said kindly as her husband picked up Ginny. "And thank you for looking out for her."

"It was nothing," Harry mumbled self-consciously, waiting for the Weasleys to leave before gratefully dropping down to sit on the floor again. He caught Sirius and Remus staring at his face. "It doesn't look that bad, does it?" Harry asked, frowning as he gingerly touched his face.

"It kind of does, Harry," Remus said quietly, looking as though he was struggling to contain his anger.

"What did he do to you?" Sirius asked again, moving over to pull Harry up and wrapping an arm around him to support his weight. "And be honest this time," he added, moving them towards the stairs.

"Nothing, he just punched me a couple of times," Harry said quietly. He waited until they'd reached the living room and then sunk onto the sofa dejectedly. "I messed up, though," he said finally, avoiding looking at either of his guardians. "Just being near him… I completely forgot all about magic, until he grabbed Ginny and her wand fell out her sleeve."

"Harry, that's perfectly understandable -" Remus began gently, but Harry cut across him.

"No, Moony," Harry said angrily. "It _isn't_! I've faced Death Eaters and – and even _Voldemort_, but as soon as I'm with my uncle I get so terrified that my mind just stops working!"

"Harry -" Sirius began.

"If I hadn't let my fear take hold like that, he wouldn't have gotten near enough for me to have to make Ginny fall!" Harry ground out. "In fact, if I hadn't let my fear get in the way, I would've got away before he managed to portkey me away in the first place!"

"You can't blame yourself -" Sirius tried again.

"Aren't you _listening_?" Harry asked angrily, jumping back up off the sofa and starting to pace the room, ignoring his dizziness. "All this training. Everything you've tried to teach me, about keeping a cool head… it was like I was a kid again, like I couldn't defend myself. It… if I hadn't frozen, back on the train – it's my fault Ginny got hurt!"

"She's been hurt worse than a knock on the head before," Sirius tried to placate him.

"No! That isn't the point. She was lucky. He was too focused on me. He could easily have hurt her a lot worse. I wouldn't have been able to stop him…" Harry trailed off, scratching at his arm which was starting to itch something awful.

"But you _did_ stop him, Harry," Remus reminded him. "You ignored your fear and you stopped him and you _both_ got away completely fine."

"Not completely fine…" Harry shook his head, and then regretted it as the whole room seemed to spin. When it stopped, he realised he had fallen over and Sirius was trying to pull him back up. "I'm fine," Harry told him, pulling his itchy arm back and standing on his own.

"What's wrong with your arm?" Remus asked, as Harry continued to scratch at it.

"Nothing," Harry said, a little defensively. "It's itchy."

"You're making it bleed," Sirius told him, and Harry frowned at Sirius, before taking his hand away from it. "We should get Pomfrey to take a look at you."

"I'm fine," Harry repeated. "I can take a couple of punches without having to get Pomfrey involved."

"But -"

"Alright, Harry," Remus agreed, glancing at Sirius. "At least have a nap?"

"Fine," Harry agreed, turning away from them and heading to his bedroom.

.

Once there, though, rather than nap as Remus had suggested, Harry paced restlessly around his room, scratching at his arm again. He couldn't help it. Being near Vernon had brought up so many memories… and with them, the urge to hurt himself again, even though the aching bruises on his cheek were already doing quite a good job. But he hadn't in so long, and he didn't want to start now. Did he? After all, Vernon would think he would deserve it, and despite the fact that he had come to believe Sirius and Remus when they told him his uncle was wrong, were they actually right? Was Vernon _actually_ wrong? He had always called Harry weak, and a coward, and he'd certainly acted it today. Did that not say something? If Vernon was wrong, he wouldn't have been so scared and weak, and he would've got out of there quicker, rather than freezing up. So, damn it, who was right?

Feeling more frustrated with himself than he had in several weeks, Harry threw himself down onto his bed, deciding he'd have that nap after all.

And that's when the vision began.

* * *

And here is chapter 1 of year six! Lots of lovely drama to make up for the delay in posting the final chapter of year five, and hopefully Harry is showing some signs of progress in how he deals with his uncle!

For all my lovely loyal readers, I hope you continue to follow the series with me :)

Also - judging by the small summary of the fic that I have posted on my profile page, does anyone have any title suggestions? I'm struggling to come up with any for the moment.


	2. Quick update

Hey guys!

This is just a quick note to let you know I'm re-reading the series to refresh my memory and will have another chapter posted within the next week. I'm so sorry I went so long without updating, but the story is definitely not abandoned! Thanks to everyone who is still following the story and to everyone who has recently made these stories a favourite and subscribed. So if you're still interested, it might be worth while re-reading the stories to refresh your memory until I upload the new chapter :) it means the world to me that people still message me to make sure I haven't abandoned this. I'm so glad that so many of you seem to enjoy it so much! I will be as quick as I can in updating. I'm super excited to get this going again!


	3. Chapter 2

**HP Year 6:  
**_Chapter 2_

_Warnings for self harm in this chapter._

Harry awoke with a gasp, chest heaving as he tried not to vomit everywhere. His uncle was dead. He supposed he had known subconsciously that when he left privet drive, the death eaters would capture his uncle, but he hadn't truly given it much thought. He was dead. Harry wasn't sure how he felt about that. On the one hand, knowing now that he would definitely never see his uncle again was a relief. On the other hand… even after all that his uncle had put him through, he had never wished death on him. Especially not from Voldemort, who could never just kill his victims but had to play with them first. Remembering the torture Voldemort had put Vernon through was enough to make Harry chuck up all over his bed and he cleaned it with a hasty wave of his wand, feeling miserable. The emotions were too much, he couldn't handle this, he didn't know what to feel or think. Standing abruptly he fetched his penknife and rolled up his sleeves and let his old coping mechanism calm him down.

It was still only early evening so Harry went to find Sirius and Remus to tell them what he had dreamed. He found Remus sitting in the library. Remus looked up at his approach, frowning at him. "Harry, I thought you had agreed that you would talk to Sirius or myself before harming yourself," he said sadly. Harry felt his face heat up as he stared at Remus in confusion.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said nervously.

"I'm a werewolf, Harry, I can smell it," Remus explained, standing and moving towards him. "Let's go to the bathroom so I can make sure you cleaned it properly, alright? And while I do that you can explain to me why you did it."

"My uncle's dead," Harry told him, and Remus only paused for a brief moment before continuing to lead him to the bathroom.

"How do you know that, Harry?"

"I had a dream… Moony, I knew the death eaters would go back for him, but I didn't ask anyone to go make sure he was safe…"

"It's not your job to protect him, Harry," Remus told him, pushing him down gently to sit on the edge of the bathtub. He pulled a clean washcloth out of the cupboard and dampened it and taking ahold of Harry's arm. "Any one of us could have sent someone to help your uncle, but we didn't because, honestly? He brought it on himself." Harry flinched, whether from the sting of Remus cleaning his cuts or from his harsh words, he wasn't sure.

"Maybe…" Harry said uncertainly.

"After everything he has done to you, Harry, I thought you'd be relieved to know you truly don't have to worry about him again."

"I am… I just, I never wished death on him you know? And… no one deserves Voldemort's torture."

"Torture?" Remus asked sharply. "Do you need your potions?"

"I guess so," Harry admitted. "I mean, I don't feel as bad as I normally do, but they'd probably help."

"Alright, I'll be back in a moment," Remus said, leaving the room. Harry picked at his newly bandaged arm as he waited, feeling uncomfortable. He had never heard Remus speak so dismissively before of someone losing their life. "Here you are," Remus said, handing Harry the potions he was supposed to take after having one of his visions.

"Thanks," he said, quickly downing them. Remus banished the empty vials. "I'm sorry for, uh, you know…" Harry trailed off, holding his arm up.

"You don't have to apologise, cub," Remus told him, hugging him. "Just try and talk to someone before you do it in future, alright?"

"Alright," Harry agreed.

"Now what do you say we have some dinner?"

.

Remus cooked a simple but tasty curry and left some extra on the worktop with a warming charm for Sirius and Tonks to have later.

"Where are Sirius and Tonks?" Harry asked as they ate.

"Tonks is working, and Sirius is at Hogwarts." Harry nodded and they ate in a companionable silence. When they were done, Harry helped clean the dishes and followed Remus back to the library where they sat and each read their own books peacefully until Tonks arrived in her usual chaotic way. Remus went to check on her, leaving Harry to finish reading on his own. He had just finished his book when Sirius attacked him in dog form, leaving saliva all over his face.

"Gross, Sirius!" Harry laughed, pushing the big dog away. Sirius popped back into his human form and sat down beside Harry, slinging an arm around his shoulder.

"Moony told me what happened while I was out." He squeezed Harry's shoulder. "I wish you would open up to us more instead of trying to cope on your own, kiddo."

"I know," Harry mumbled. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologise. I'm not angry, or disappointed. I just worry. It's a dangerous thing to do, even if you do have magic to help you when things go wrong. It's been so long since you last did it, I thought you were past doing that. Unless you've been doing this without telling us?"

"No!" Harry said quickly. "I haven't. I just, when I woke up, I couldn't – I didn't know what to do. I just did it without thinking, I knew it was the only thing that could help everything make sense again."

"It's okay," Sirius soothed. "Eventually I hope that it won't be your first thought when something upsets you, but we'll take it one step at a time. But please, don't hide it from us. If you do relapse, don't hide it. Let us help you. You don't ever have to feel ashamed or scared to come to us for help, alright?"

"Okay," Harry agreed, glad that Sirius was so understanding. Everyone always thought that Sirius was so immature, that he was practically a child himself, but that was just a front.

"So what do you say we play some wizards chess before bed?"

* * *

Sorry it's such a short chapter. I'm so out of practice with writing! I'll try to make the next one longer. Sorry if self-harm isn't your favourite theme but I think it's important to show how Harry is still struggling with it. Too many stories have a quick cure, and most of the time it just doesn't work like that in real life. People can struggle with it on and off for years and years. If this is something that you struggle with, you can always message me :)


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